2. Consider the following reaction scheme reported by Stull et al. (1969): CH₂Cl(g) + H₂O(g) → CH₂OH() + HCl() 2CH₂OH(g) → (CH₂)₂0(g) + H₂O(g) In the first reaction, methyl chloride reacts with water to form methanol and hydrochloric acid. In the second reaction methanol decomposes via a condensation reaction to form dimethyl ether. At 600 K, the equilibrium constants for the reactions are 0.00154 and 10.6 respectively. (a) (b) If the steam ratio is set to 1, X'is the moles of HCl formed, and Yis the moles of dimethyl ether formed; show by mass balance that at equilibrium the mole fraction of methanol will be: (X-2Y) 2 Assuming that the gas phase reactions are ideal, what will be the composition (mol %) of the final gas stream? (c) In an attempt to generate more methanol, the steam ratio is adjusted to 7:1. Is this a sensible thing to do, explain your reasoning?

Fig: 1